Do U Ebay?

[4GH1RH]

Just curious, do people here Ebay?

I am a relative beginner with only a 72 star rating (and 100%) but I would say that Ebay is where I do most of my large item shopping these days.

God son's birthday, he wants an Xbox - Ebay.
School project, need a digital camera for the kids - Ebay <$60
Parents 40th wedding, want to transfer video to DVD - Ebay <$50
Need a new mobile phone - Ebay ($1200 PDA phone for $400!)
Uni fees due - Ebay! (sell sell sell sell)

I am embarassed to say, but the only time I really clean house is when my grandmother visits every two years, so I just bought a pressure cleaner off Ebay. $185 for a $300 pressure cleaner. That will do the decks and driveway nicely. I might even con the kids across the road into thinking it is fun to clean with the pressure cleaner... Hey, it worked last year, but I had a lot of autographs on my driveway.

When cash flow hits bottom, I go around the house and see what I have not used in a while and Boom!, its on Ebay. I usually raise $400 to $600 a time which sees me through the next set of uni fees. I look for free listing days on Ebay, but they are becoming rare as well.

One of my Ex's used to buy from garage sales and sell on Ebay, and would make about $400 a weekend. Not bad income for a single mum. It was hard work bundling 2yo N into the car in and dragging him around garage sales on Sats, but it paid quite well for S.

When I told 10yo godson last week that I bought him an Xbox game for $14 on Ebay, and explained that he needed a credit card to join Ebay, the feedback a few days later from his mother was "He wants a credit card - any idea why"... ooops. I will probably get him one. I dont believe in denying reality. I'd rather teach him how to use one than have him find out on his own.

Most people I know are terrified of being scammed on Ebay so dont do it. I have been scammed twice, once I did not pay, and once I did. The one where I did I paid on PayPal, and so I have filed a claim. Its interesting, even though Ebay owns PayPal, it still takes 30 days to investigate fraud. Even when Ebay were the ones that advised me that it was a bad seller. Grrr.

So, who else Ebays. Maybe we will hear some stories of 50 pence Ferrari's....

But yeah, when I want to buy something these days, I look in the shops first to get an idea of price, then watch Ebay for a while to see what is a good price. It can take months, it took me 8 months to find a $2500 camera for $800.

I'd like to think it is the same with property - sit and watch, know what it is worth, and eventually a $2500 camera will come along for $800.

Now all I need to do is set up an Ebay store for passive income...

Cam

 

[paulzag]

Hi Cam

Ziggy's Warehouse eBay store, there is also an online store at Ziggy's Warehouse Online Store Yes I'm proud of 1095 feedback with only 2 negatives.

The thing that is great about eBay is also it's biggest difficulty. It is not easy to be a professional seller when people only want to buy $2500 cameras for $800. I am constantly looking for reliable, repeatable, value items to buy and resell. But that only works for a small percentage of the items I can find, and I used to run a direct sales company.

The listing and final value fees are what kills most emerging sellers. I've actually toyed with getting into teaching people to eBay.

Good luck eBay is a lot of fun.

And most sellers who have been around longer than 1 month with a decent amount of feedback are legitimate.

 

[quoll]

Ebay rocks, also keeps the wife busy. Been a member since Nov 2002.

Cheers
quoll

 

[4GH1RH]

Hey, cool store. I never thought of looking for trips like that on Ebay. I guess you really can find anything one Ebay. 1000+ is awesome - its taken me a couple of years just to get to 72! So that is some trading. Yeah, your listing fees and final fees must be quite high - not a lot of choice as you can't list those for $1.

He he, sorry to be the tightwad looking for a $2500 camera for $800 - its the Scottish ancestry kicking in.

I see that Ebay had a logo about teaching people to Ebay, but never followed the link. I have just started teaching the family Ebay, but I dont think they will ever get into it seriously. Friends, well, one of those things you avoid if you want to keep freindships. Had a friend who listed a surfboard - and someone bought it for $1. He was dissapointed as the freight was way more hassle than $1 was worth! You learn...
Good luck withh your store!

 

[Aceyducey]

For anyone that's interested, here's some notes from an article I read the other day about eBay.

• eBay has been the fastest growing company in US history. It now has US$4 billion in revenue, 9,000 employees and 135 million customers.
• eBay conducts more transactions each day than either the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. More than US$80,000 of goods and services are traded every minute.
• If you considered everyone who earnt an income from eBay as an employee, the company would be the second largest private employer in the US with over 500,000 employees.
• BUT eBay has only just reached the point when half of it's revenue comes from outside the US! So there's huge prospects for the service's growth.

And eBay could not have existed 15 years ago!

Ten things you didn't know about eBay: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8391726/

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Hi guys,

I just started selling seriously on ebay 1 week ago, only 4 ebay sales experience prior to this. I think my results have been pretty good. I brought in a 20 foot container of stock 1 week ago and have already generated enough sales to pay for all the stock + expenses. I hope this continues because I really look forward to giving up my job as a labourer.

Importing + ebay = $$$.


Regards

Adrian

 

[4GH1RH]

Sounds good Adrian, it seems there are more and more people doing that. I guess you have to know what will sell. Low overheads would be good. I find I am turning more and more to Ebay for shopping, as you can get just about everything.

I guess it will not appeal to somepeople, and some people will always be to scared to use it. You wonder what effect this will have on traditional retailers, or is that $80,000 a minute only a drop in the ocean?

Like everything it does take time. Pet hate is packing stuff up and taking it to the post office! So far so good - I have not sent the wrong thing to the wrong person!

 

[Simon]

I have dabbled with selling on ebay and my wife has embraced buying on ebay.

I sold small easily posted items like chilli seeds etc. Can buy in bulk cheaply and sell little plastic bags of seeds for about $4. Good profit markup but there is only so many you can sell per week and I guess I was making roughly $80 pw for about 5 hours work? Not bad for a student or the like but hardly going to lift my family out of poverty.

I think the secret is to find the magic product that is in demand, easily mailed and has a high enough mark up to justify the work you need to put into posting the ads, corresponding with customers, checking your bank account and then mailing off the product. $3 profit each time wasn't the answer for me. It was kinda fun though.

Now if I could just think of something with about $20 profit margin that fits in an envelope..... ideas anyone?

Cheers,

 

[geoffw]

There might be seeds of other plants you could sell for a good profit.

This for instance.

 

[Simon]

Thanks Geoff,

As always ... sage advice indeed.

Cheers,

 

[geoffw]

I wasn't thinking of sage, I was thinking of parmesan oregano. Footlong.

There's a thyme for everything.

 

[wish-ga]

I just bought a queen size bed on ebay for $167.50 click here

The lovely sellers even delivered it to my house (from Penrith to the Nth Shore!) on the back of their ute and stacked it in my garage.

It makes up for the neg experiences I have had with ebay (items arriving broken or damaged/dirty when touted as unused). One lady really upset me as I have posted about in another ebay thread and won't repeat here (I was hospitalised and unable to contact her needless to say she went burkoh).

A colleague bought her bed on ebay and I thought I would give it a go. Glad I did. Although it has scratches/gouging I was going to rub it back anyway...and if it is in less than pristine condition I don't have to be precious about it getting dinged about (bright side to everything)

I think Trading Post has lost a lot of business because ebay has photos so you don't waste time crossing town to inspect. You can see immediately if it is a style you like. "three seater leather lounge" in trading post could be any style really and you may arrive to see a 70s flashback.

 

[pennyk]

I regularly ebay... both buying and selling.

My best sale was workstations, which I bought on graysonline - 13 workstations for $80, plus a hundred or so to hire a van.

Sold one year later - 6 workstations, which we had configured differently - $850. I just wanted someone to come and take them out of our office so we didn't have to dismantle them!!

I bought a 2 x 2 seater lounge recently for $15. My husband was a bit disappointed it had scratches in it!!!!! I don't think you can be too picky when you pay $15!

and I just bought a birdcage, which I may need to sell because it is a bit too small.

I've only had a few bad experiences of people not paying, and one bad experience of a product not being delivered. This person seemed to have built up a reasonable feedback, and then began to not deliver - perhaps a deliberate strategy to get money!?

try grays online as well, cause it sometimes has good bargains too.

Pen

 

[Merovingian]

Do I eBay?

Not in the usual sense. I am not a member of eBay. I only tend to use eBay as a benchmark to determine the market price of items I wish to sell privately.

 

[4GH1RH]

Yep, that makes sense - I do that too to find out what the going rate is on Ebay as that gives you some idea if you sell stuff on the local community noticeboards.

I find it pays to sit and watch a few auctions before actually buying as that gives you an idea of what a reasonable offer is, and how fierce the bidding can get. My ex that Ebays a lot from garage sales reckoned that auctions that finished on the weekends were better for the seller. Based on that I usually buy on auctions that end during the week (during working hours) and time sales to finish on a weekend in the evening when people are home but have not gone out yet. Who knows.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

I would definately say that 8:30pm on Sunday night is the best time to finish an auction. Last night I had an auction end and I put in the ad "why pay $1000 + for a similar item when I can save you money" and the winning bidder goes and bids $1125 !!! and I have 5 more of these auctions currently listed on following days. And he's already paid me too! I even put in 2nd chance offers to the 2 underbidders at $1100 and $900 and they will both buy too.

I think a lot of people just love the convenience of ebay and don't care if they pay market or above market price if they want the item. Some people don't have time to go to physical shops and require delivery, especially regional areas.

I think presentation is also vital, professional pics can really sell the item for you. I can't understand why some people submit dark cluttered photo's when trying to get top dollar for their items. I have found that simple is best, keep it simple and make it as easy as possible for the buyer to complete the transaction. Use HTML pics so you don't pay to list your pics, photobucket is good.

Also vitally important is your product. You really have to find a product where there is not too much competition and good margins. I would much prefer to sell 1 item for $1000 than do 100 x $10 transactions, actually I would much prefer to do 100 x $1000 transactions.... damn those ebay and paypal fees can add up quick.

If anybody has other advise then please add, we can all learn new techniques.


Regards

Adrian

 

[paulzag]

Between 3% and 5% of winning bidders (under $100) did not complete their purchase last year, I don't have the stats handy right now. But half of them were hospitalised or had a family member hospitalised. So while I believe each individual Non Paying Bidder, I don't believe them collectively.

Congratulations Adrian_See, you'll be a power seller soon. I found I get more serious buyers once an item is above $500 so they don't much around.

And yes the fees add up quick. A Titanium powerseller I know had his first loss month in 5 years in May.

(and Adrian answer my PM)

Regards

Paulzag
http://www.ziggyswarehouse.com.au/

 

[voodoo]

I buy and sell on ebay.
I have sold surfboards, clothes, blankets etc. I have purchased some real bargains on ebay, I picked up a $200 wetsuit for $60, a 200m titanium divers watch valued at $350 for $35.
I usally only buy if it is a real bargain, but I did come unstuck early this year. I bid on a camera and got ripped off $500, no item was sent . It was a painstaking procedure but Ebay refunded me $380, it was better than nothing and I am more cautious now........
I still use ebay.
cheers

 

[Peter 14.7]

My wife and I have got in to Ebay since we found out she was pregnant. It is great for baby stuff as they have high turnover.

Examples:

Cot & Mattress bought for $152 worth $400 plus. OK to use but planning to paint.
Pram (near new) for 20% off new price.
Nappies: bought half prices $10 versus $20.
Baby Clothes, pack of 27 for $23,
Bonds Wonder Suits size 000 for $0.50 which are $7-$9 in Target.
Wife bought BNWT (brand new with tages) Designer Changing Bag for $70 worth $95 in shops.
Pumpkin Patch Gear for half price.

Also as child grows out clothes can be resold at I estimate 70% - 100% of the buying price.

We recently some a Timber Filing Cabinet cost us $455 10 years ago and got $345. Sold 10 year old TV 80cm for $220. The best thing is we are RECYCLING and not buying new stuff or chucking stuff out because it is old, a little worn or simply pre-loved.

No bad experiences but we are careful in payment. Some gear was more worn that we expected but it is very easy to get focussed on $1 when buying and avoid the big picture.

Avoid Jewellery, Watches as it is mostly fake. For example: search Tiffany & Co and see Pendants worth $400 in shop and asking only $29.95 and you know it is not real.

Professional Sellers don’t interest me. Online garage sales are the go.

Regards, Peter 147

 

[mit]

I sold some things on eBay a few months ago without a hitch. However, I am selling some items now. On one item I have a number of bids. I noticed that 3 of the users were brand new users created on the day that they bid. I know it is pretty easy to create a new username on eBay.

Is this some kind of scam or am I just being paranoid?

MIT